My good friend marjorielight has FINISHED drafting her first YA novel. For those of you who write, remember how that feels…to finish that first book that seemed like it would go on forever when you started writing? (Wait…I’m on my fifth novel, and it still feels that way when I start.) Congratulations, Marjie!
I am FINISHED grading state English tests, which means that instead of being locked in a conference room with bubble scoresheets today, I get to be back in my classroom with my kids.
I am still full of major thankfulness for the retreat I attended last weekend, Kindling Words. I posted pictures earlier this week, but for those who would like to see more (including a shot of me drumming with wayyy too much enthusiasm), you can check out other photographic KW posts from halseanderson , saraclaradara , and eluper .
Today started better than yesterday, which began with a broken plate and a mouse in my kitchen, all before 7am. It is now 7:30, and the kitchen is quiet.
Historical fiction is one of my favorite genres, so I celebrate any time a great new historical novel shows up in the world. Tomorrow is cause for celebration indeed because it’s the release day for Winnie’s War (Walker Books for Young Readers) by Jenny Moss. In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll tell you that Jenny and I share a publisher and are online friends, but I’d be crowing about this book even if I’d never heard of her before.
I had the good fortune to read an ARC of Winnie’s War a few months ago and was absolutely swept away by this story of a small-town Texas girl standing up to try and protect her family from the 1918 Spanish Influenza epidemic. This is the very best kind of historical fiction – full of rich characters, vividly detailed history, the suspense of a threatening pandemic, and even a touch of romance in the form of a sweet little first-kiss scene that made me smile for weeks after I read it. Teachers of grades 4-8, in particular, will want to snatch this one up for their classrooms and school libraries.
This weekend, I attended Kindling Words, a retreat for published authors, illustrators, and editors of children’s books. KW is a little difficult to describe because the whole is so much more than the sum of its parts. There were workshops and readings and informal discussion. There was also painting, yoga, South African drumming, a January bonfire, writing time, and lots of dessert. Together, it added up to four days of magic.
Before heading off for a weekend writers’ retreat, I spent Thursday talking books with more than 400 kids spread over three schools in two states. First thing in the morning, I visited with middle schoolers at Northern Adirondack Central School to talk about my Lake Champlain historical novels, Spitfire and Champlain and the Silent One. Here are two of my brave volunteers, trying on 18th Century outfits.
Then I hurried next door to the elementary school for two presentations. The 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders had terrific questions about the American Revolution on Lake Champlain and the encounters between Native Americans and French explorers and fur traders in the early 17th Century. At the end of my presentation, there was a rush to sample the hardtack!
Not one lost tooth this time!
I also talked with the NAC kindergartners, 1st, and 2nd graders about the process a book goes through to become a book, using my upcoming chapter book, Marty McGuire, Frog Princess (Scholastic, August 2010) as an example. The kids had lots of questions about ideas and words and illustrations when we talked about picture books, and I showed them some photos of the snowshoe trip where I got the idea for my upcoming picture book, Over and Under the Snow (Chronicle Books, Fall 2010). The students helped me out with a quick puppet show to illustrate the animals that live under the snow and those that cruise over it, searching for prey.
There were wonderful questions about book-making and books in general. One girl asked me which books she should read in order to be smart. I suggested that she read whichever books she loves the best — and lots of them! Another student asked if I ever have to go back and change things for an editor. (My editors are likely having a good laugh over this now.) She was amazed to hear that Marty McGuire has been through 13 drafts already! One girl raised her hand and recommended to me that if I’m reading and I don’t know a word, I should try "tapping it out," and I promised her I’ll add that strategy to my toolbox. All the kids had great questions and thoughts to share, but I have to say one of my favorite moments of the day came from this little guy.
His librarian did a drawing to give away some of my books after the presentation, and when his name was called, I’m not sure he understood exactly what was going on, but he came up to get his book signed. While I was signing and he was waiting in line, I overheard this conversation:
Boy-who-made-my-day: You mean this book is mine? I get to take it home?
Awesome librarian: Yes! And the author is going to sign it for you in just a minute.
Boy-who-made-my-day: And I get to keep it for the rest of my LIFE??
I’m going to remember that for the rest of my life.
After school, it was off to South Burlington to meet with a terrific group of kids who read Champlain and the Silent One in with their library book club at Chamberlin School.
Talk about thoughtful questions! I was temporarily stumped more than once. The kids also had a beautiful craft project waiting for me when I arrived.
The students loved how the characters’ names in the book grew out of their histories and personalities, so they made puzzle pieces — collages with images and words that reflected their own personalities.
After we talked, I tried guessing which puzzle piece matched each student. (I got at least a few of them right!)
Many thanks to these friendly book-lovers, Marje Von Ohlsen (left) and Cally Flickinger (right), as well as NAC librarians Jessica Gilmore and Jamie Gilmore, for arranging all this book-magic. I had such a wonderful day with your kids!
My students and I tromped into the Adirondack woods on snowshoes for our annual animal tracking excursion at the Visitors Interpretive Center at Paul Smiths. It was breathtakingly snowy and white, as always.
I’ve loved this field trip since we started taking it five or six years ago, but this year was extra special because I got to tell the naturalist who works with our kids that his trip inspired a picture book. You see, during last year’s field trip, we spotted a set of mouse tracks that disappeared next to a crevice in the snow, and that sparked a discussion of what goes on in the subnivean zone…the network of airy tunnels that forms between the ground and the packed snow. I was enchanted. And I loved that word…subnivean.
On the bus ride home, I dug a pencil out of my backpack, smoothed out my wrinkled attendance sheet, and on the back of it, wrote a very rough draft of a story about a girl who goes cross country skiing and learns about that secret world under the snow. I revised and tweaked and eventually sent it to my agent, who found my snowy little story a home at Chronicle Books.
Fast forward a year…
I just turned in my revision, based on a brilliant five-page editorial letter. Chronicle has found an amazing illustrator for the book — Christopher Silas Neal. This weekend, I’ll get to meet my editor in person, since we’re both attending the same retreat in Vermont.
But first, I have one more day of hiking through the snowy woods, following the tracks that tell stories in the snow.
The talented Laurie Halse Anderson (halseanderson ) just shared the news that her historical novel CHAINS has won the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, and I couldn’t be happier. My 7th graders and I will be reading the final chapters tomorrow and Friday, and I was excited about that even before I heard today’s news. CHAINS is about Isabel, a slave girl trapped in New York City and torn between Loyalists and Patriots as the Revolutionary War ravages the city. Yesterday, President Obama (I love writing that) gave us a brilliant connection to this chapter of American history when he quoted Thomas Paine’s "The Crisis" in his Inaugural Address. "Let it be told to the future world that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive, that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet it."
Just days after Paine shared those words, General George Washington did what no one believed was possible — defeated the Hessians at Trenton after the famous river crossing immortalized in this painting by Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze.
George Washington Crossing the Delaware, 1851 – Metropolitan Museum of Art
In my classroom this week, we’ll be talking about turning points and history and hope. And we’re going to write letters through time, to tell Isabel and Curzon from CHAINS all about what happened in Washington, DC on a cold day in January, 2009. We’ll let them know about Laurie’s award, too. On both counts, I know they will be so very proud.
Sometimes in the middle of January, it’s hard to remember the promise of summer.
And sometimes, in the midst of news about a troubled world economy and violence in Gaza, it’s hard to find hope.
But not today.
Today, I’ll join 450 students and staff members in our middle school auditorium to watch Barack Obama become the 44th President of the United States.
Today, an African American will hold our nation’s highest office for the first time.
Today, Americans of all backgrounds will gather by the hundreds of thousands in Washington, DC . They’ve come by plane and car and bus to celebrate the leadership and promise of a man born in 1961 — when it was still illegal for blacks and whites to ride together on a bus in some southern states.
Today, I will sit with my students and listen and watch. I will fight back tears, unsuccessfully, I am sure. And together, we will celebrate how very far we have come as a nation.
Today, it will not be hard to imagine the possibilities.
After weeks of wistfully watching the ice of Lake Champlain form and break up and form and break up again, we were finally able to head out on our ice skates today. Of course, when you skate outdoors, you have to be your own Zamboni.
If you’re looking for me over the next few days, I’ll be out shoveling the lake.
I’ve noticed that when I talk about writing with people who aren’t writers, many ask about the role of editors in the book-making process.
“Doesn’t it upset you when an editor wants you to change something in your book?”
Sometimes, when I say no, people say, “Hmph.” Like I’m lying, afraid the evil editors will find out if I tell the truth. I think they’re picturing editors as power-hungry monsters, waiting for unsuspecting manuscripts with red eyes and red pens. But I haven’t met any editors like that.
This weekend, I’ve been revising two picture books with feedback from two really smart editors. One is my picture book that’s under contract with Chronicle, OVER AND UNDER THE SNOW. The other is a new book that’s out on submission now, and an editor has suggested some revisions so she can decide if she’d like to move forward with it.
In both cases, I’ve been amazed at the depth of the feedback in those editorial letters – feedback designed to strengthen the heart of the story rather than change it. This weekend, I’ll be:
Cutting bits of dialogue – and a handful of proposed spreads – that aren’t absolutely essential to the heart of the story.
Streamlining a plot so it doesn’t meander.
Adding more evocative, sensory language to one particularly vivid scene.
Switching two spreads to better foreshadow a coming event.
Researching some more to add new details.
Changing an ending to make it more organic to the story.
Looking for a new title. (It probably seems like I’m always looking for a new title, but that’s a post for another day.)
Interestingly enough, both editors appreciated connections in the text that I made subconsciously while writing but hadn’t thought to develop . I love it when that happens, and I’ll be building on those connections, too.
So does it upset me when an editor wants to change something in my book?
Nope. It thrills me that someone cares about it enough to want to make it stronger. And while a book may start out as mine, by the time it’s been helped along the way by a village of loving literary aunts and uncles like writer friends and agents and editors, it’s not just my book any more. It’s our book.
The editors I’ve been fortunate enough to work with don’t have red eyes, and they use email attachments more often than red pens. They don’t say, “What you’ve done here is all wrong.” They say, “Look what you’ve done here that’s so right. Build upon it. Finish it. Make it shine.”
If you’re like me, you’re already having 2009 book thoughts…and wishing some of the books scheduled for this year would hurry up and release already! Personally, I’m jealous of anyone who snagged an ARC of Wintergirls, though I’ve been lucky enough to do some early reading of my own…particularly when it comes to my fellow 2009 debut authors…THE DEBS!
If you’d like to learn more about what’s on the way for 2009, become a watcher of the LJ Community debut2009 . The best part? Besides learning about great new books way in advance, you can enter to win fabulous, fun prizes during the 12 Months of Debsness!
And hurry…the deadline to enter for the first month is midnight tonight!
(Pssst….The contents of the cool, orange goody bag are top secret, but I’ll give you a tiny hint. Among other things, there is chocolate involved!)
